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Views on Publishing

Confronting Politics: What is the Editor's Responsibility?

Beginning this fall, The Review Review will be running a new series exploring questions of literary interest with editors from around the community. Our first topic looks to link current events with the unique publication of literary journals.

– Matt Broderick, TRR Reviews Editor

Do lit mags & editors have a responsibility to confront the many recent tragedies and violent episodes in the US & abroad? If so, in what way? As an editor, how do you see yourself responding to these issues?

This can also be a hard line to walk when some editors are calling for poems about the tragedies written by the affected communities (for example, Latinx poets writing about the Pulse shooting), which can seem counterintuitive if they aren't actively publishing diverse writers. It can seem like, "We will publish your poems when it's about the death of your brothers and sisters, but not otherwise." We at Nightjar are committed to diversity and want to be a safe space /always/, not just when the news is plagued with tragedy. I want more journals to consider their publishing practices overall.

Their purpose is to promote quality literature. And, sure, political and social movements have their place.Do lit mags & editors have a responsibility? Not necessarily. Guernicaor Boston Review take this on.Hobart or The Believer not as much. All contribute. Literature has sufficient room.Lit mags & editors, if they do confront these issues, should promote political diversity and objectivity. And whether they do this or not is the more important question. We don't need echo chambers or bias, but rather a confrontation of polemics debated respectfully from all sides.

We do believe that it is important for us to provide a forum for poets to respond to each other's poetry, and respond to global and local tragedies. The overall purpose of our journal is to foster a sense of shared humanity and community through arts and literature, and I don't think we can do that without making space to address the acts of violence that diminish us all.

I wouldn't say we have a responsibility to do so but, especially electronic journals, have an opportunity to do so. Our flexibility, our ability to publish multiple pieces/issues at the same time, our ability to move from acceptance to release within minutes, allow us to be a space where writers and readers wrestling with current events can turn.

While we don’t shy away from active issues necessarily, there are plenty of excellent publications in English which will handle writing with political agendas. We're trying to curate a space online rather as a fresh alternative to the pervasive media panic, where people can find greater community through literature. We want to attract based firstly on the quality of great new writing, although writers we publish do tackle some intriguing issues.

We strongly believe in the power of the people. As writers, we have the power to provide our insights for the greater good of countries, worlds, and more, especially when tragedy strikes and the world needs guiding voices the most. Minority voices are strong at Quail Bell Magazine and now, we're trying to empower them more than ever.

I believe literary journals have a responsibility to publish work that speaks to this--and other--historic moments and to ensure that those not well-represented in the larger inter/national conversations have space to be heard. At least part of the value of literature is that it allows us to expand our understanding of what it is to be human, and it is the job of editors to get the authors who do this best to their readership.”

As a writer, as an editor, as a publisher, you have the right to look at the works you accept and think, "What is this work saying about these characters' view of the world? What messages are entrenched in this protagonist's viewpoint and if I write this or publish this, what am I adding to the world?" Now, a lot of editors will start bringing up things like "unreliable narrators" and "flawed main characters" and "satire" and yes, all of these things exist as tools at our disposal to use flawed views in our work for a purpose...but sometimes, when you push that editor or writer to ask, "What is the purpose of doing this? Really? After all the bells and whistles, what did this do?" Then, a lot of the time, it doesn't add up to being much more than laziness that has been codified through time as something that fancy writers like to call tropes.

What do you think? As a journal editor, do you feel compelled to respond to the today's social and political issues? Why? How?